HEAD — CREATIVE — SWADESH

Job description

**HEAD — CREATIVE — SWADESH** Reliance Retail | Bengaluru, India *Reporting to: Business Head — Swadesh* Reliance Retail is seeking a distinguished creative and merchandising leader to head the Creative organisation of Swadesh, its premium platform for authentic Indian art, craft and handloom. The Head — Creative will be the custodian of Swadesh’s creative identity and brand vision, and will own the largest engine of the business: all six categories — Art & Décor, Apparel & Accessories, Furniture, Jewellery, Home Linen and Wellness — spanning creative direction, category management, buying, merchandise planning and product design and development. This leader will shape the creative philosophy, storytelling, aesthetic and craft narrative that define Swadesh, and connect the design and buying agenda to the artisans who make the product. **We are looking for a leader who has:** - Owned creative philosophy, brand identity and creative direction for a premium lifestyle, fashion, design or luxury business. - Led category, merchandising or design across a multi-category lifestyle, fashion, home or luxury retail business. - Owned assortment, buying, pricing and design outcomes at meaningful scale and complexity. - Balanced commercial performance with brand, creative and aesthetic integrity. - Built and led teams of designers, category managers, buyers and planners. - Championed craft, handloom or artisan-made product, and built relationships across craft clusters, museums or cultural institutions. - Used data and customer insight to drive range, pricing and inventory decisions. Experience in premium lifestyle, fashion, home, jewellery, craft or luxury retail would be particularly relevant. International exposure through education and/or professional experience in leading global creative, design, luxury, lifestyle, fashion or retail organisations is preferred. Prior experience in India is valuable but not essential for an outstanding leader with the adaptability to operate across the scale and diversity of the Indian market. Compensation will be structured to attract and retain world-class leadership talent. To apply or learn more, respond directly through this posting. *#RelianceRetail #Leadership #Swadesh #CreativeDirection #BrandVision #Merchandising #ProductDesign #Crafts #Handloom #ExecutiveLeadership* **PART 2 — FULL JOB DESCRIPTION** **HEAD — CREATIVE — SWADESH** **Company:** Reliance Retail **Location:** Bengaluru, India **Reporting to:** Business Head — Swadesh **ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY** Swadesh is Reliance Retail’s premium destination for authentic Indian art, craft and handloom, spanning Art & Décor, Apparel & Accessories, Furniture, Jewellery, Home Linen and Wellness across an omnichannel network of experiential stores and a digital storefront. We are seeking a Head — Creative to be the custodian of Swadesh’s creative identity and brand vision, and to lead the category, merchandising and design organisation — the creative and commercial core of the business. The role owns Swadesh’s creative philosophy, storytelling and design ecosystem, and all six categories end to end: creative direction, category management and buying, merchandise planning, and product design and development, working in close partnership with the Reliance Foundation Artisan Initiative for Skill Enhancement (RAISE) artisan-sourcing network that supplies the product. This is an opportunity to define the creative philosophy, storytelling, assortment, aesthetic and craft narrative of a distinctive premium business, and to build the creative, merchandising and design capability that will carry it as it scales. **THE MANDATE** The Head — Creative will own Swadesh’s creative identity and brand vision, and commercial and creative performance across all six categories. The role leads the creative, design and category organisation — designers, category heads, buyers and merchandise planners — and works closely with the Business Head, Operations, Online, Quality, Marketing, Visual Merchandising and the RAISE network to translate craft into a compelling, commercially disciplined range and a unified brand experience. **WHAT YOU WILL LEAD** **1. Creative and Brand Vision Leadership** - Explicit ownership of Swadesh’s creative philosophy, brand identity, creative direction, design budget, mood boards and seasonal creative themes. **2. Cross-Category Design Curation and Cohesion** - Responsibility for guiding Category Design Leads while ensuring a unified Swadesh design language, colour palette, motifs, materials and seasonal collections across categories. **3. Category, Buying and Merchandising** - Own assortment, pricing, buying and margin across Art & Décor, Apparel & Accessories, Furniture, Jewellery, Home Linen and Wellness. - Set category strategy and range architecture that balance commercial performance with craft authenticity and brand positioning. **4. Product Design and Development** - Lead the design and development organisation across categories, ensuring product that is original, aesthetically distinctive and true to Indian craft traditions. - Build repeatable design-to-shelf processes that move from concept through technical design to production with artisan partners. **5. Merchandise Planning and Buying** - Own demand planning, buying and inventory productivity, improving availability, sell-through and working-capital efficiency across categories. - Strengthen the discipline of planning, management information systems (MIS) and merchandise analytics to support range and pricing decisions. **6. Craft and Culture Curation** - Champion India’s craft traditions and build enduring relationships with artisans, craft clusters, museums and cultural institutions. **7. Global Design and Quality Standards** - Benchmark against international design and luxury standards while driving innovation in materials, techniques and craft revival. **8. Brand Experience and Visual Storytelling** - Own